By a Dafa practitioner in Mainland China

(Clearwisdom.net) In normal situations, I can do the sitting meditation for one hour. But sometimes, my legs feel painful and there is a lot of discomfort. Sometimes I even feel discomfort in my mind, like there are many bugs chewing away in my mind. When I have strong righteous thoughts, I recite in my mind,

"When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it. When it looks impossible and is said to be impossible, give it a try and see if it is possible" (Zhuan Falun)

or I recite the Fa. Then I can continue my sitting meditation without being disturbed. But when my righteous thoughts are not strong, my body sways. This seemingly reduces the pain. My mind is also disturbed, and I feel that the time is too long, "How come the music is still going on?" I also feel very uncomfortable with all kinds of thoughts popping up in my head, "Maybe I should put my legs down" or "Today I don't have to sit for one hour" or "I should look at the time and I'll continue if only a little time is left, and I'll stop here is more is left."

Once when I felt that I could not endure anymore and it seemed like the exercise music would never stop, I put my legs down. When I looked at the time, there was only one minute left. I was really shocked.

If this sitting meditation were my entire cultivation process, then it would be like I was giving up cultivation, giving up cultivation one minute before the final completion! How could I not feel greatly regretful?

The sitting meditation is like a specific cultivation process. The length of the exercise music is fixed, defined by our Teacher. We know that 60 minutes of sitting meditation is our goal. (Certainly, first one has to achieve 60 minutes of sitting meditation. Then one needs to remove distracting thoughts in this process as much as possible to achieve a state of peacefulness and tranquility.) But during the sitting meditation, especially while in ding after Jieyin, if one's mind is not tranquil and if one does not count the sections of the music, one will have difficulty judging where one is during the meditation. The person then wants to know how far it is from the end in order to make a decision whether to continue the sitting mediation or not. As a matter of fact, this is already giving up--giving up persistent belief and giving up enduring patiently.

Cultivation is the same. Teacher arranged our cultivation path at the beginning, and if we can walk on the path until the end, we will achieve consummation. But when we are in the middle of tribulations, it is difficult to handle our minds, especially when we are bearing huge pain and suffering. We may wonder, "When will the cultivation finish?" When we are having difficulties passing a hard tribulation, one may even have doubts, "Didn't Teacher say a long time ago that it was ending? How come so many years have passed and it has still not finished?" This is already showing a poor faith in Dafa and an unsteady will in cultivation.

We are cultivating in the mist of illusion without knowing what we will face and without knowing the final ending moment of cultivation. It is possible to give up cultivation because of poor endurance and lack of confidence in Teacher and Dafa. And it is very possible to give it up just one minute before the end of cultivation. What is the final goal of cultivation? It is to reach Consummation. If a person has cultivated for many years, but gives up all his previous efforts simply because he failed to uphold his mind when facing a tribulation, how could he not regret it painfully at the moment of the manifestation of the truth?

The cultivation path consists of many instances of doing the three things. If we are lax with ourselves in each instance, thinking that we can make it up the next time, we probably will never have another chance. If we can really recognize that each minute of cultivation is precious and important--that it can cultivate a person to an enlightened being or it can cause a cultivator to drop to an ordinary person's level--and if we can treasure each cultivating instant, strictly following Master's teachings and Dafa's standard, then the final moment waiting for us will certainly be Consummation. Otherwise, it will be the final, painful regret resulting from the accumulated insufficiencies of each of the intervals!

Cultivation is really extremely serious and sacred. It does not accept the least bit of empty boasting and showing off. Before, during the personal cultivation period, it seemed like I was doing well. But I did not persistently do the exercises and later I almost stopped doing the exercises until I was persecuted by the evil. Cultivation is not for showing off to other people. It is a solid process of truly looking inward to cultivate oneself. It does not accept the least bit of faking or superficial behavior.

Teacher taught us,

"When a wise person hears the Tao, this person will practice it diligently. When an average person hears it, this person will practice it on and off. When a foolish person hears it, this person will laugh at it loudly. If this person doesn't laugh at it loudly, it's not the Tao." ("Lecture Nine" in Zhuan Falun)

In the cultivation process, if one does not strictly follow the requirements, then he is an average person, as Teacher has mentioned. This way, it is difficult for him to complete his cultivation. If other people push him a little, he does a little better. But if the environment is not good, then he is not diligent. Let's take an environment that does not have group practice or a large scale group Fa study. If one is not diligent, probably no one will give him a push and probably no one will even know about it. He is not deceiving any one else, but he is actually harming himself.

When people think about how good you are in cultivation or how high your xinxing is, it does not represent your true cultivation level. Only Teacher knows your true situation. Actually, Teacher has talked about this many times, but deep in my mind I was still obstructed by this attachment. Today I have come to understand this because of Teacher's benevolent hint. Since this kind of situation has appeared extensively during this period, it will be very dangerous if it continues. I came to understand that pursuing comfort and not being willing to bear hardships are my significant attachments and they are very big obstructions in my cultivation path. Sometimes when I think about them, I feel that they are seemingly very difficult to break through and I feel a little discouraged.

Today by chance I glanced through Teacher's words,

"If you, as a student [of Dafa], do not follow Master's requirements, it is definitely no simple thing. The old forces have arranged for all Dafa disciples a set of their things, so if a Dafa disciple doesn't follow Master's requirements, he must be following the old forces' arrangements." "Only when you follow Master's requirements are you validating the Fa and cultivating yourself as a Dafa disciple, and only then are you a true Dafa disciple." ("Be Clearheaded")

I suddenly came to realize that this really is a very serious issue. This is an issue of whether one follows Teacher's teachings and also an issue of whether one rejects the old force's arrangements. I suddenly realized that, because of my attachment of being afraid of hardship and pursuing comfort, I did not meet Teacher's requirements. The old forces took advantage of my attachment and made me do even worse, trying to enlarge my mentality of self-blaming, to discourage me, and to destroy my righteous belief, in an effort to try to finally thwart my final goal of reaching Consummation. This is extremely serious!

But Teacher taught us,

"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference" from Essentials for Further Advancement II) Whether or not I did well before, since now I have the opportunity to cultivate in Dafa, I must do it well. Teacher said,

"As long as you upgrade your xinxing, you can overcome them. Unless you, yourself do not want to do so, you can make it, provided you want to overcome them." ("Lecture Four" from Zhuan Falun)

A person cultivating in Dafa is like sawdust in a ladle of molten steel: the sawdust disappears in a flash, totally changed. Dafa can reorganize the whole cosmos in a flash, no need to mention a small person's attachment.

"One thought born of righteous faith is all it takes. And whoever can hold firm that righteous thought and go the distance will become a magnificent god forged by Dafa." ("Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference" on February 26, 2005)

Posting date: 9/2/2006
Original article date: 9/2/2006
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 8/27/2006
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/8/13/135229.html

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